VIJAYAWADA, Feb 21: An Air India Express Boeing 737 carrying 64 passengers from Doha had a narrow escape on landing at Vijayawada international airport in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday afternoon after hitting an electric pole, which crashed to the ground. There were no injuries to the passengers.

The mishap took place while taxiing towards bay number 5 on the runway. The aircraft escaped with minor damage to its wing. The airport is located in Gannavaram. Nineteen passengers were alighting at Vijaywada and the rest were heading for Trichy, in southern Tamil Nadu.

Air India Express was founded 15 years ago as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India. This was carved out out of personal issues as in the case of many establishments in India. The low-cost carrier offers flights to 13 international destinations from several cities in India.

An earlier similar air accident after hitting electric wires occurred way back in 1973 at Delhi airport, the first major accident involving an Indian airlines, in which 48 of 65 (7 crew) on board perished and the plane was destroyed as it burst into flames. The Indian Airlines flight 440 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Madras (now Chennai) to New Delhi. Among the dead was Mohan Kumaramangalam, a Union Minister. The pilot tried to lift the plane up after realising he was landing on the outskirts, pushing up the high tension electric cables from beneath. Visibility was poor following a duststorm.

Last year there was an air crash in Kozhikode while landing on the table top runway in heavy rain in which 21 passengers died. The plane overshot the table top runway into a ditch.